"Telling a compelling story about an engineering project” category winners:

First: EfID for a video that describes their project to bring clean water to a small agricultural community in Ecuador. Video team: Andrew Simpson, Ben Tieu, Omar Azizi, and Jack Scherer.

Second: IEEE’s brain team for a video describing a project on applications of machine learning. Creators: Dom Huh and Jay Deorukhkar.

“Capturing viewers’ imagination by illustrating how The Future of Engineering is Here” category winners:

First: IEEE for a depiction of the organization’s work in the research and development of a diverse range of technologies. Video team: Dom Huh, Daniel Rodriguez, Michael Nguyen, Toan Tran, Fateema Farzana, Weifan Wu, Melany Evangelista, and Baseerat Chaudery.

Second: EfID for a video about how the group designed and built a bridge near a Civil War battlefield in Toms Brook, Virginia. Creators: Jack Scherer, Michael Ambrosio, Mike Belay, and Omar Azizi.

The students found the process informative and educational. “We learned how to become better storytellers and demonstrate to others the kinds of projects we are working on and the impact we are making,” says Scherer, a senior in mechanical engineering and member of EfID.

The videos “will allow us in 20 years to show our children what we did in college as well as re-watch the videos and remember all the fun times we had,” he says.

Azizi, a senior in civil engineering and vice president of EfID, says, “The contest allowed us to use our creativity to present our projects to the world.”

Developing the 60-second video about IEEE provided members “a chance to reflect on our group's vision to pursue research and development and how our work can impact the world,” says Huh, a junior majoring in electrical engineering and president of the Mason chapter.

“We recommend this experience to others as it provided us the push we needed to continue our work and stay motivated,” he says.

The main goal of the IEEE’s Mason brain team video “is to show people how powerful and versatile machine learning can be,” says Deorukhkar, a senior majoring in computer engineering. “It is a field that is constantly evolving with newer learning algorithms and its growing applications.”

A committee of faculty and staff selected the contest winners. “The videos are a way of community building because many students don’t know what other students are doing,” says Martha Bushong, director of communications and external affair.

The best video projects reflected students’ ability to compress their thoughts into a concise, easy-to-understand product, she says.